The second “attack” – a no hold barred for Iran?

Iran has been targeted by a second computer virus in a “cyber war” waged by its enemies, its commander of civil defense said on Monday. Gholamreza Jalali told the semi-official Mehr news agency that the new virus, called “Stars,” was being investigated by experts.

“Fortunately, our young experts have been able to discover this virus and the Stars virus is now in the laboratory for more investigations,” Jalali was quoted as saying. He did not specify the target of Stars or its intended impact.

“The particular characteristics of the Stars virus have been discovered,” Jalali said. “The virus is congruous and harmonious with the (computer) system and in the initial phase it does minor damage and might be mistaken for some executive files of government organisations.”

While it is interesting to figure out what “congruous and harmonious with the system” actually means, even more interesting is what kind of mischief someone in this position can conjure up and blame it on “clear and present danger to critical national infrastructure”. Many believe that Iran was successfully targeted by the Stuxnet worm. Given this history, how many would fault Iran if it decides to “hunt down” machines/entities that are helping spread this new virus against it? Will such a strategy be acceptable by the world at large? Would the US or China or for that matter India be able to use similar logic to implement an active defense strategy? How can the international community verify Iran’s claims?

2 Responses to The second “attack” – a no hold barred for Iran?

>>Would the US or China or for that matter India be able to use similar >>logic toimplement an active defense strategy?

In the case of US the answer is clearly yes, its all too plain clear that the cyberwar bogeyman is being raised in Washington by the pentagon, lawmakers and the media (but the reaction is well justified of course). We are already seeing turf wars between the Airforce and other military organizations on controlling America’s cyberwarfare capabilities. Regarding China, well I think Operation Ghostnet and Operation Shady RAT clearly shows China’s capabilities and intent. But when it comes to India, I dont think that we have any kind of cyberwarfare expertise leave alone intention and political will (but I did hear rumors of some under the radar govt committee being formed to investigate this). The entire nation is being sold out on all of the “ethical hacking” BS by Fadia and Co that there is not even one single serious discussion on cybersecurity here (other than within Takshashila of course). We are doomed. Stuxnet was found on the wild in Indian factories (or refineries, I dont remember). How long before China or Pakistan adapts it to attack our infrastructure? Is it already out there waiting for a trigger?